Replacing a power supply is extremely easy. Only four screws hold it place.
The newer supply may come with a 24 pin ATX connector and if your MOBO
only requires 20 pin ATX pwr connecter it still is no problem.  You only 
have
to orient the plug to plug in with the four extra pins being on the end and 
hanging
in the breeze.  I would recomment that you go with a higher Wattage supply.
Guessing that you may have a 350 W unit go with a 450 W unit.  Check out
the online computer suppliers such as newegg.com or tigerdirect.com.
If your system is a P4 or newer you should already have a 450 W pwr supply.
You may also want to get a supply with two fans.
Just be sure to pay attention to where all the plugs are.  It is really hard 
to screw
up. ie. it extremely easy to replace a power supply.  Good luck.

William
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "james" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 9:22 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] power supply


I have a tech question regarding replacing the existing power supply in m
y Gateway E-1500SD Desktop.  Here is my situation.  I keep going through
power supplies.  The latest would make it the fifth time it has been repl
aced.  Every time it has been replaced, it has been the same manufacturer
 and same model.  The computer is still under warranty; however Gateway w
ants me to pay to send it in to them and frankly I do not want to shell o
ut S&H just to have them replace it with another power supply of the same
 make and model.  I know it isn't the surge protector because:
1. It is a UPS with a built in surge protector
2. Nothing else plugged into it has had any problems
3. An electrician checked out our home's wiring and found no problems.

Another reason I don't want to send it in is because when it was shipped
to us it came with 256mb memory and I have since upgraded it. (Two power
supplies went out before the upgrade)I have a feeling that the techs over
 at Gateway will say that me upgrading it fried the other two power suppl
ies (the last two times a tech came out and replaced them and didn't say
anything) I don't believe upgrading the memory would fry the power supply
 because:

1. Too much memory is not readily known for frying a power supply, maybe
not allowing your computer to load.
2. Even before upgrading, I went to crucial.com and used their scanner to
 see what kind of memory it needed.  Then to be safe, I took the memory s
tick into the local computer store and got matching memory.  The upgrade
was to 1gb and according to crucial and the computer tech at the store, i
t is upgradeable to 4gb of memory.

I was looking around for a power supply I could put in, and went to neweg
g first.  They have a multitude to pick from however there is no tool to
tell me what kind of supply would work.  As much as I know, it is made by
 Delta Electronics.  That is about all I can read (the rest being in Chin
ese.) Is there anything I can use out there to determine what type of sup
ply will work with no problems?

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